Glad It Was You
by Fawn Hickory
Summary: An aid station is bombed and Hawkeye and Margaret have to go and get the four survivors. On the way back to the 4077th, though, there's an accident. THE LAST CHAPTER HAS BEEN ADDED!
1. Chapter 1

**M*A*S*H isn't mine (although you have no idea how much I wish it was) but I love it and since I have seen every episode and want more I did what any slef-respecting writer and fan would do: I made up my own. :-)**

**Hope you like it!! Would love whatever feedback you want to give me. **

"Folks, I have some news you may not like."

"What is it, sir?" Major Margaret Houllihan inquired of their commanding officer Colonel Sherman Potter.

"We just got a call from an aid station about five miles from here. They were shelled and none of them are in any shape to drive or fly themselves out. We're the closest medical unit and they need us to go and get them."

"How many are there?" Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Piece asked.

"Not many. They had been ordered to move out and were down to the bare bones when the shells hit. Only four people left."

"Just a nice ambulance load," Captain BJ Hunnicutt said.

"Yeah. The problem is, the Koreans may not be gone. I can't order any of you to go but those boys need help." Potter looked around the little group of people, and three somber faces looked back at him.

"When did it happen?"

"Just after dawn."

"And they need help now." Hawkeye wasn't asking.

Potter nodded grimly.

"You can count me in," Margaret said.

"Well," BJ said hesitantly, but Hawkeye cut him off.

"I'll go. You have Peg and Erin to think of."

"Thanks."

"All we need is two, so that settles it. Pierce, Houllihan, be ready to pull out in half an hour."

* * *

Just about an hour later, Hawkeye and Margaret were pulling into the bombed out aid station. Most of the area was just rubble, although one tiny shack still stood, apparently only by prayer.

"We're here!" Hawkeye said with much forced cheerfulness.

The surgeon and the nurse grabbed their medical bags and rushed inside, Hawkeye having to duck under the low doorway. He went to one and Margaret to another and both felt for pulses. "He's gone." Hawkeye called out and moved to another.

"This one has a faint pulse." She covered him with a blanket and hurried to the fourth person. She looked ever at Hawkeye and shook her head.

Hawkeye was laying a young man who had been slumped unconscious by the communications unit out onto a stretcher. "Made the call but couldn't stay awake till his date arrived." Hawkeye said.

Margaret brought a blanket for him while Hawkeye examined him quickly. "Shrapnel damage to his left arm and he's going into shock."

They worked together and managed to stabilize him, and then Hawkeye went to check on the other survivor. "Pulse and blood pressure are stable. Let's move them out to the ambulance."

When they had the two survivors into the ambulance Hawkeye looked back to the building. "I want to take the others with us."

"It's a waste of time..." Margaret said what he already knew.

He looked at her.

"Alright but we have to hurry." They rushed back in and got the two dead soldiers onto stretchers and carried out to the ambulance in less than four minutes. Hawkeye knew Margaret was strong but the efficiency with which she handled the literally dead weights impressed him.

"Everything's ready," Margaret said as she climbed up into the passenger seat and Hawkeye started the engine. They pulled out and Hawkeye pressed his foot down, trying to get back to the 4077th as quickly as he could, unconsciously trying to make up for the time "wasted" by picking of the fallen men.

Shells began to fall around them and he swerved to miss them, until one hit so close and he jerked the wheel so hard that they didn't realize that they had hit something until it had happened.

The front end of the Army ambulance was wrapped neatly around a tree trunk.

Hawkeye's chest ached with bone-deep intensity, but the moan of pain that came from the woman beside him sounded much worse.

* * *

**I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I possibly can, but since I don't own my own computer it may be a week or two. The story is all written, I just have to get it typed and uploaded. **

**Have a nice day!**


	2. Chapter 2

Hawkeye looked over at Margaret in the seat beside him. Beside a bloody but shallow-looking cut on her forehead she didn't appear injured. But he knew something had to be hurting her for her to make a sound like that.

"Margaret?"

"My leg." There were tears and terror just under the surface of her voice but she fought it and was winning.

Hawkeye bent as much as his throbbing ribs would allow and looked under the dashboard. What he saw made him very unhappy.

Blood was blossoming about halfway down her lower leg and it was oddly and painfully bent. "A compound fracture."

"Are you alright?"

Hawkeye probed his chest gently, searching for broken ribs. He grimaced against the pain but in the end decided it was just a bad bruise. There were much bigger problems afoot.

"I think it's just bruised. I'm going to check on the two wounded and then I'm coming around to your side so I can see better."

He stood up and went back into the ambulance. One of the dead men had slid off the stretcher but some god must have smiled on them because the two living soldiers were only a little jarred around. He climbed down out of the back of the ambulance and came around to Margaret's side, opening the door slowly and placing his hand up in front of him in case she fell out. She didn't.

She was looking down at him with pain filled blue eyes and Hawkeye was actually afraid. He knew he knew what to do with her injury, had dealt with hundreds of them, but none of them had been her. He swallowed and smiled at her. "Let me see."

He found a hole in the fabric if her khaki pants and ripped it carefully, trying not to jar her. When he saw the leg he swore softly.

Bight white bone was protruding from the flesh a few inches form her knee, but thankfully the blood was not gushing; it merely leaked lazily.

"How am I going to get out?" Margaret asked.

"We'll think of something. First I'm going to give you a shot of morphine." He went to the medical bag and prepared the shot, and she presented him with her right arm. She didn't seem to register the little pain of the almost hair-thin needle slipping into her skin, but he still soothed the injection site with his thumb once before he handed her back her arm.

"Hawkeye?"

"Hmm?" He was staring at her leg, at the ground, at the height of the ambulance.

"I'm going to be sick." She leaned over and threw up just as he jumped out of the way. When she straightened her skin was light green.

He soothed her absently, his hand on hers. Then he brightened. "I have an idea."


	3. Chapter 3

"What?" Margaret asked weakly.

"How does your other leg feel?"

She ran her hand down it and found it to be basically undamaged. "Okay."

"There's no room for me to splint that leg with you still in the cab but what if I held it while you sort of slid down out of the ambulance?" He found a stick and scraped the sick back so he didn't step in it, then he kneeled down slowly, holding his arm tightly over his ribs to lessen the jarring. He grasped her just behind the knee and on her ankle. "Does this hurt?"

"No. Not really."

"I could hold you like this, and you hold yourself up on the door there and on my shoulder."

Margaret looked around and considered his plan. "That may work." She looked down at him then, and noticed how the sweat had beaded on his skin and was soaking the hair on the back of his neck. "How are you?"

"I've been better. But you're in worse shape. Now let me know when you're ready and go slow; I want you to turn in the seat so you're facing out the door."

He took a firmer hold and lifted her leg slightly off the floor, trying very hard to keep the bone from moving or grinding. He glanced up at her and saw she was a deeper shade of green.

"I think I'm going to be sick again." She put her hand over her mouth.

"No! You can be sick twice later. You have to work with me here."

She took several deep breaths and stared at him, bringing herself back under control. He looked up at her and offered her a little encouraging smile. Finally she nodded and began to twist in the seat as he followed her.

Now Hawkeye was supporting her injured leg completely. He squirmed his lower half a bit, managing to dislodge the stone that presses painfully under his knee, but he kept his arms steady even as the angle made the pain in his chest worse. It couldn't be helped so he stubbornly ignored it.

"Okay." Margaret said.

"Now get a good grip on the door and on my shoulder and slide down to the ground slowly. That's very important: go slow. I can't catch you if you slip."

She was about to let herself go, but then she stopped. "You should have put a stretcher on the ground for me to sit on."

Hawkeye looked around. "Damn it! Why didn't I think of it?"

"You had other things on your mind." Margaret's voice was soothing and she brushed her fingers though his hair. "Let's get moving. Holding your arms up like that isn't doing you any good."

Hawkeye didn't say anything.

"This is going to hurt, isn't it?" Margaret asked.

He nodded.

She nodded back and started to let herself go.


	4. Chapter 4

Margaret's weight on his shoulder hurt but as he watched her he was glad it was taking so long for her to reach the ground. The slower she went, the softer her landing would be.

She pointed her toe so she was touching the ground before she was standing, but the jolt when she was finally standing on her own was enough to make her gasp and her knee to go weak. If she hadn't had such a death grip on the door and on Hawkeye she would have fallen.

"Okay." Hawkeye said. He was still holding her fractured limb, and he sat it down very carefully. "Can you balance like that while I get a splint?"

"We're going to do it standing up?"

"I don't think you can get down with out more serious damage if we don't."

Margaret nodded. He got slowly to his feet, trying to breathe as shallowly as possible. He hurried back around the ambulance and came back with the materials for a splint, and a stretcher. He laid the stretcher down near her feet and dropped to his knees again.

"Hold onto me." He began to splint her leg and talk to her as he worked. "Where would you rather be?"

Margaret closed her eyes and thought for a moment. "In a soft bed with silk sheets and a comfortable nightgown, sipping red wine and reading a romance novel."

Hawkeye nodded and made a sound of agreement in his throat. "I would like to be in a lawn chair reading a magazine and sipping a martini so dry it makes Death Valley look lush."

Margaret managed a little laugh. "Funny. That's not what I thought you would say."

Hawkeye gave her a little look. "A romance novel isn't exactly what I thought you would be holding either."

She tried to give him a dirty look but her heart wasn't in it. Then he began to wrap the bandage tightly around her leg and she whimpered, her grip tightening on his shoulder until her nails dug through the two layers of fabric he wore and he was almost certain she broke the skin.

"Finished." He said finally. He stood up and put his arm around her for a moment, helping her balance on the one leg while he thought of how he could get her on the stretcher without hurting her anymore. A minute passed, and he knew how he had to do it. He told her ducked a bit so she could lock her arms around his neck. Then he clamped her tightly to his chest with one arm and locked the other behind her thighs and lifted her, lowering her down onto the stretcher.

He couldn't straighten up all the way so he held onto the side of the ambulance and panted, holding his chest. "Maybe you should have a little morphine," she told him.

"I have to check on the others."

"Fine. Then morphine."

In a couple of minutes he was back and he lowered himself slowly to the ground near her. He prepared a shot for himself but as he rolled up his sleeve she said, "Let me do it. I can see you shaking from here. You'll break off the needle."

"Like you can do better."

In answer she held out her hands for him to see. He handed her the needle. She gave him the shot and as she rolled his sleeve back down she asked him, "How's that?"

He grinned tiredly at her. "You could kiss it and make it better."

"Pierce!"

"Margaret, believe me, as beautiful as you are, that could not be further from my mind."

"Coming from you…" She stared at him critically and cracked a little smile. "You look almost as bad as I feel."

"I'm glad. I'd be a terrible liar if I looked like I felt good."

Margaret smiled. Then she looked around and shivered. "How long do you think it'll be before somebody comes for us?"

"Shouldn't be after dusk."

"I hope not."

"BJ and Colonel Potter'll know something happened. We're already late."

"Of course…" She looked at him again and she looked scared. "You're sure?"

"I bet my life on it."

"Good, because we may be doing just that."


	5. Chapter 5

"You know what I was thinking of just now?" Hawkeye asked Margaret a few minutes later.

Margaret looked at him.

He pursed his lips at her. "I was thinking about this one time when I was a kid. I was about six years old, and one day I decided to climb this great big tree in our yard." He stopped and looked at her, sure she wasn't interested, but she was staring at him intently.

"Go on."

"Well the picnic table was under that tree, and I was out playing and I looked at it and I wanted to see what the world looked like form the top. So I climbed up on the table and from there I could just reach to pull myself up to the lowest branch.

"I started climbing and I was doing pretty well. I looked down but I wasn't afraid. I just kept climbing. Then I reached a big dead limb. I put my weight on it, and I heard it crack. It sounded like, well, almost like a shell exploading."

He looked at her again and she was staring back at him, clearly interested. "I don't know if I screamed on the way down or not but when I landed I sat there for a minute, sort of dazed, and then I started looking myself over to see that everything was still attached, while my cuts and scrapes started to sting. Everything was going fine until I got to my hand.

He held out his left hand and looked at it. "My index finger was dislocated and it was just hanging there. I started screaming then. I sat there wailing like every bone in my body was shattered until my mother came running out of the house.

"I showed her my finger and she started laughing. I remember looking at her in disbelief for a second before I started screaming even harder. She picked up and took me over to the picnic table and sat me in her lap. She laughed again and said she was laughing because I'd scared her but I was fine. She told me that Daddy would fix my finger, and then she took me inside and took care of my scrapes." He stopped, a little smile in his face. "She kissed each one after she washed it and I know it's ridiculous, but each time she pressed her soft lips to my skin, she did make the hurts better."

"How old were you when she died?"

"Around eleven."

"That's a nice story." Margaret reached over and took his hand. "I bet she was a wonderful woman."

"Yeah. Well, do you have any stupid injury stories from your childhood?"

Margaret thought for a minute and grinned, "There was the time I jumped in front of a jeep."

***

The sun was slipping lower in the western sky, and Hawkeye had gone to check on the patients. When he came back he said, "I hope they get here soon. That one boy needs surgery."

"They're coming."

"I know."

"No. I mean they're coming." She pointed down the road, and Hawkeye held his breath and listened. In the distance was the sound of a jeep.

"Taking lessons from Radar?" He asked, grinning.


	6. Chapter 6

As the sound got closer, Margaret began playing with her hair, patting and fluffing and Hawkeye looked at her in disbelief.

"Well I…"

"Never mind. I have decided to make it a point in life to not try to understand women. The last thing I need right now is a headache."

The jeep pulled to a stop near them and Radar and BJ got out and rushed to them, Hawkeye pointing BJ to Margaret first.

"Where have you been?" Hawkeye asked.

"Had casualties." He and Radar lifted Margaret's stretcher and placed it on the back of the jeep. "How are you doing?"

"I'm still here. I might need a little help getting up."

"What happened to you?"

"Ribs. I think it's just a bruise though."

BJ helped Hawkeye to rise and stood with his arm around his waist. "Can you lift your shirt up for me?"

Hawkeye complied and winced as BJ pressed gently all round his ribcage. "I think you're right. When you get back, get to X-ray."

"Look at that bruise. It looks just like a steering wheel," Radar breathed. Hawkeye looked down and barked a short laugh. "That could be why it hurts."

"It wouldn't surprise me." BJ answered. "There's an ambulance on the way. You ride back in the jeep and I'll wait here for Klinger."

"Fine by me." BJ helped him climb into the jeep, then he twisted a little and threw one arm over Margaret for the ride. "See you."

The ambulance arrived as they were turning around and Klinger waved to them as they passed.

* * *

The next day a sore Hawkeye walked slowly from the Swamp to Post-Op, stopping by the two beds of the aid station injured before he went to Margaret's bed.

She was lying with her eyes closed and her hands resting on top of the blankets on her stomach. Hawkeye took her chart off its hook, and the small metallic sound of the clipboard's metal ring on the hook made her open her eyes. "Hi."

"Hi there." Hawkeye smiled down at her. He pulled a stool over and eased down on it.

"How are you?"

"Oh fine. What about you?"

"It hurts but not too badly."

"Good."

Margaret was looking at him, and she opened her mouth to say something, changed her mind and closed it again.

"What's wrong?"

"Pierce, I'd like to tell you something."

"Oh, today it's 'Pierce'. Yesterday it was 'Hawkeye'." His eyes were teasing and the glare she gave him lacked intensity.

"Hawkeye."

"Fine. What's on your mind?"

"Yesterday when the ambulance crashed, I was scared."

"Yeah, I would hope so."

"That's not what—I mean, when I saw my leg like that, I don't think I've ever been more scared. I saw my own bone…" She trialed off, swallowing several times.

"Different, wasn't it." Hawkeye had gone serious, and he moved the wheeled stool a little closer.

"Hawkeye, I wanted to tell you, I'm glad it was you there with me. I can lean on you. I know we don't always get along but you make me feel safe."

Hawkeye's face broke into a slow smile. "Thank you, Margaret." He picked up her hand and stroked his thumb across her knuckles. They sat there for a few minutes in silence before he drew a breath and said, regretfully, "I have to go back to my tent and lie down before me chest fall off. I'll be back later though, alright?"

"Sure."

He dropped a kiss on her hand, laid it on the blanket and stood up. He smiled at her once more, and after she returned it he walked away.

The End

**I hope you liked this little story. I have others that I plan to post as soon as possible, and hope y'all come and check those out as well.**

**Because, you know there'll never be enough M*A*S*H.**


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